Radon Stancil is a Certified
Financial Planner™ practitioner and is co-owner and co-founder
of Diversified Estate Services in Raleigh, North Carolina, and while
its numbers and strategy that drew him to the industry, it’s the
emotional side of it that he enjoys and surprised him the most.

“I talk a lot about peace of mind and what clients
have to have in place. It’s a major role of what I’ve been,”
he says. “People were talking confident in the 90s’ and
2000’s. Everything was wonderful but by the end of 2008 people
had heavy anxiety about their finances and my role changed. It used
to be all about money and today it’s not. Today it’s about
how to deal with the stress of retiring in what you could call the most
financially unstable time in the United States history.”

According to Stancil, even clients who did not lose
anything in the downturn of 2008 experienced anxiety, confusion and
fear which is why he says he shifted his role from financial planner
to financial coach.

“Regardless of how good you are, there’s
not a point in life where you don’t need coaching. Even top athletes
still need coaches at the top of their game or they risking getting
beat,” he says.

“It’s not about me telling you the one thing
you need today—it’s a month by month, year by year coaching
program because life changes.”

Stancil adds that while other financial planners might
put together a sound investment strategy in the beginning, it’s
important to have an advisor that not only changes the strategy as the
clients’ needs change, but coaches them along the way, too.

“Life changes because of health problems, the
loss of a spouse, maybe your kids came back home,” he says. “What
we did last year doesn’t always apply to this year. It’s
a moving coaching program. When people come here they’re entering
into a relationship where I coach them on life.”

Stancil received his financial planning certification
from Boston University and founded his companies more than 11 years
ago but Stancil’s been a businessman since he was 12 years old.

His father, a small business owner specializing in heating
and air ventilation, was 52 when Stancil was born. Having a father older
than most of his friends’ fathers was a unique situation, Stancil
says, but one that offered him life-learning opportunities.

Each summer his dad would hire him and his siblings
to work for the family business. They would get paid the same wage as
adults and would do most of the same work, too. The catch was that he
was responsible for managing all of the money he earned since it was
the only money he’d have all year.

“I could buy whatever I wanted as long as I understood
I also had to buy what I needed: school clothes, shoes, etc. That kind
of training was very unique and it was very pivotal. It’s what
made me who I am today,” he says.

At age 12 he started off holding a flashlight but by
the time he was in his teens, he and his brother were completing entire
jobs by themselves, crawling under houses, installing and fixing air
conditioners.

“We did everything. In the HVAC business, you
crawl under houses, you install, and fix air conditioners—we did
it all. Obviously I couldn’t do it unsupervised but back then
there were no rules saying we couldn’t do it,” he laughs.

Upon graduating, Stancil took over the family-owned
business but sold it before receiving his financial planning certification
from Boston University. He looks back on that time as one of the best
and unique learning opportunities where he truly learned the complete
inner workings of a business.

“When you run a family owned business you learn
about running a small business. I learned a lot about that. It’s
helped me work with clients who run a business or are a senior business
executive. It also taught me a lot about running my own company, how
to work with employees, how to operate independently and how people
who do that think,” he says.

Now 92 years old, his dad is still accompanying his
brother, who purchased the business, on jobs twice a week.

His father significantly impacted the way he viewed
business and also offered him the chance to see someone he knew personally
transition into the retirement stage of life. It’s what motivated
Stancil to focus his financial planning expertise in that direction.

“By the time I was out of school my dad was 70
years old. The idea of seeing someone go through retirement and the
emotional side of that part of life, to me it’s the biggest, most
difficult transition. If people don’t know how to deal with it
it’s a very stressful time. Retirement is a major life change,”
he says.

He helps his clients work through a variety of life-changing
scenarios as they transition into their retirement years. That’s
where Stancil’s coaching manner and his ability to build close-knit
relationships with each of his clients separates him from other advisors.

“Most clients for the longest part of their life
have been saving and working and they don’t know how they are
going to transition to retirement and make it last. It’s a major
shift—they wonder what else they are going to do in life and they
have a lot of anxiety,” he says.

He has a different focus than most other financial planners.
While he incorporates sound investment strategies and products into
each client’s plan, he prefers to focus on the process of developing
that plan through building a one-on-one relationship with each client.

“People can expect a coaching environment rather
than a salesman environment. Most people realize once they meet me that
I’m not going to sell a product or service. We’re going
to look at life and look at it with the most peace of mind,” he
says.

He emphasizes that there’s no one strategy or
product that’s a catchall for people entering the retirement phase
and that assuming so is one of the biggest mistakes a person can make.

“Most people that are going to play golf focus
on the club, but the swing is what’s important. Financial products
are clubs and you could have the best clubs but still be unhappy. Those
clients didn’t understand the process and instead just got a product,”
he says. “I focus on the swing. What is it we want to happen?
Which way do we want the ball to go?”

Despite being a top financial planner he says that most
of the conversations in his meetings with clients aren’t about
money.

“My clients and I have a very close relationship,
and I’m in the middle of a lot of things. If they get cancer,
I know about it. If they have a grandchild, I know about it. I’m
a part of major events in their lives,” he says.

Stancil’s stellar communication skills on educating
his clients on the complex issues in a manner in which they understand
is what his clients say they appreciate most. The close relationships
have also helped him continue his own pursuit of never-ending education.

“I’ve gotten to meet very interesting people
and I get to know about what they’ve lived through life and I’ve
learned a lot from them. Most people I work with are financially successful
and lived all through their working life. It’s interesting to
hear how they dealt with family, life, and kids. Getting to know them
is my favorite part of the job,” he says.

And that’s the way he likes it. Just like his
dad, Stancil doesn’t plan to ever completely retire—he loves
his job that much.

“It’s the biggest and most rewarding thing
for me to work with people. Retirement is the largest most transformational
period of life and if we can work through the transition they can be
happy,” he says.

For someone who’s established himself successfully
in the financial industry he still believes there’s always room
for improvement and is constantly on a mission to be better.

“I think constantly about how I can have a bigger
impact,” he says. “I’m not in business to be mediocre.
I’m in business to make a difference in my client’s lives.”

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